Posts Tagged ‘hfs+’

I really want to like SpiderOak, especially when you consider the following features:

Whole cloud de-duplication – All of the data you backup to spideroak, regardless of the source is de-duplicated

The ability to share files in your cloud with others

‘Zero-knowledge’ encryption

Cross platform client

Support of open source

However, I keep finding problems that prevent me from using it as my primary backup software. As with BackBlaze I did some testing with Backup Bouncer v0.2.0 to see how the latest version of SpiderOak (v3.6.9680) fairs with the meta-data that Mac OS X generates. Results follow.

As you can see, SpiderOak fails all of the backup-bouncer tests. Combine this with the password issues I’ve mentioned previously and it looks like SpiderOak still has a ways to go before I can seriously consider using it to house my data.

No basic permissions? No timestamps? And no extended attributes? Wow, this means restores from BackBlaze will only get your data back and that you loose all of the hidden data on your files… What does this mean? Well, for example if you have a file that is locked and you restore it, the new file won’t be locked. Examples of other things that get lost: whether or not a file extension is hidden, creation dates, modify dates, symlinks, if a downloaded file hasn’t been opened yet (quarantined), finder comments and where you downloaded an item from. What is the logic here? Is it really that much effort to back this up? Too much space used if you back this up? I wonder how Mozy fares in this test.